[photopress:diamonplane_1.jpg,full,alignright]Diamond DA40, a four-seat aircraft co-produced by China and Austria, has now entered the mass-production stage which is a new breakthrough in China’s aviation industry.
In some ways you can compare China to Austrlia. There are a lot of isolated outposts where a full size jet plane is plainly inappropriate. Even places which are only 300km from Sydney to do not have full aviation services. They depend on much smaller aircraft which are economical on shortish trip with light loads.
Diamond’s DA40 is at the lower end of the scale. It is a low-wing four-seat composite airplane that is suitable for everything from primary flight training to personal transportation through hard IFR conditions. The airplane can cruise as fast as 140 knots on 9 gallons an hour and has a Lycoming engine.
It is not an expensive aircraft but has exceptional visibility through Plexiglas canopies, cavernous rear canopy for loading bulky cargo into back seats. Initially it was intended just for private use but in some countries it is used as a commercial aircraft for short hauls.
The manufacturer of these DA40s is Bingao Aircraft, a Sino-Austrian joint-venture enterprise in Guhua County, Shandong Province. Bingao should be able to produce 500 DA40s every year, and it has received 200 orders already. When it gets to its second stage of construction then it should be able to produce 1,000 aircraft a year.
Source: China News